Suicide bombers: a message from al-Qaeda

The attacks by women suicide bombers that have killed 57 people and wounded 300 in Kirkuk and Baghdad today send a simple, deadly message. They are a clear statement to Sunni moderates, Shia Arabs, Kurds, Americans and their allies that al-Qaeda is not finished in Iraq and they know how to attack their enemies.

Both sets of attacks were carried out by women bombers using explosives in a body vest, and in one case a bomb in a shopping bag. They targeted a demonstration by Kurdish activists in Kirkuk, and in Baghdad attacked a Shia religious parade in memory of one of the founder-martyrs of the Shia sect.

The effect was a fine calculation of insult and injury. Recently most of Iraq had seen its calmest days since the international incursion and the fall of Saddam over five years ago. It was reported that Sunni nationalists, tribal elders and sheikhs, had been angered by the bloody

and nihilistic ways of the jihadi foreign fighters inspired by al-Qaeda and were getting rid of them.

Today's bombings warn that the task is not going to be so easy. The attacks follow the lead of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (left) the maverick Jordanian who founded 'al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia'. He urged blood and vengeance against what he called the 'axis of heresy', all Shias, Kurds and Americans. Hence today's targets.

Zarqawi was killed by the Americans two years ago in a safe house outside Baghdad. But his legacy endures, particularly in the new al-Qaeda groups following his inspiration in northern Europe, and in his use of video propaganda through the Al Sahab information agency.

In Iraq those in charge now know that they still have a long fight with al-Qaeda. First they must identify exactly what nation and place the women bombers came from – for that will give the vital clue about the new recruits for the new generation of al-Qaeda.